"Phandeeyar [based in Yangon] is an ICT hub that is designed to support social innovation, civictech and ICT4D/M4D in Myanmar. Phandeeyar brings the tech community together with others who are moving Myanmar forward – such as civil society organizations, social enterprises and independent media – to build the digital tools, platforms and content to accelerate change and development.
Phandeeyar, which means “creation place”, was born out of Code for Change Myanmar. Code for Change Myanmar organized a series of hackathons in 2014 that focussed on building tech solutions to social problems and solutions for small and medium businesses. We wanted to carry forward the enthusiasm from the budding tech community that came to participate in the hackathons and create a permanent space for innovation that has a wider social impact."

"Yan Naung Oak explains the current and future uses of open data in Myanmar...Things move very quickly in today’s Myanmar. Out of the many changes that are shifting the country’s political, economic and social fabric, two particular transformations are important to highlight: First, the unprecedented pace of mobile phone and smartphone adoption that followed the liberalisation of the telecoms market, and second, the reforms in the media sector that have significantly reduced the draconian limitations on press freedoms. In 2010, we were a country that read newspapers only for the obituaries because everything else in them was propaganda. Two years later, in 2012, truthful and honest journalism was suddenly no longer followed by a prison sentence (most of the time), and dozens of new, independent media outlets were established. Three years after that, in 2015, everyone was getting their news (both real and fake) on their smartphones from whatever was trending on Facebook. A public sphere, one that had not existed since our grandparents’ time, seemed to have appeared overnight – and just as suddenly, it had leapfrogged into the internet era.
What will it take to build resilient democratic institutions in this rapidly changing space? I believe that a citizenry equipped with technology and data is a crucial part of that answer..."

"A new initiative from Google helps make online materials available offline through physical kits, allowing developing-country developers to work even when the internet doesn’t.
Google announced at the beginning of December it would enable developers to access about 30 GB of certain materials – videos, software development kits (SDKs), documents and more – offline through DVDs and thumb drives. Targeted at “software developers or students of software development in regions of the world where steady access to the internet is expensive, unreliable or non-existent”, Google has already spread upward of 2000 kits across India, Bangladesh and Sub-Saharan Africa, the company said..."

Executive Summary:
The Myanmar Library Survey is the first in-
depth nationwide study of the country’s public libraries.
Commissioned by The Asia Foundation in partnership with the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation
Foundation (MBAPF), the survey aimed to establish a comprehensive, current picture of the Myanmar
public library system to help inform the development of Myanmar’s information architecture and
community initiatives. While much can be done to improve infrastructure and better support their role as
information hubs, the survey
reveals that citizens perceive libraries as having a significant and positive
impact on community life.
The survey findings will be circulated amongst key stakeholders, including
governmental officials, policy makers, local and international
non-governmental organizations, civil
society, and local communities.
A country coming out of decades of isolation, Myanmar is now rapidly building the information
infrastructure needed for its citizens to participate in the reform process and compete in
the global
marketplace. Myanmar’s reverence toward libraries and its vast library network has the potential to aid
this process. This study focuses on public libraries
–
defined in Myanmar as libraries registered with the
government
–
because of their accessibility to a wider number of people and potential for scalability. In
addition to public libraries, Myanmar has university, monastic, private, and specialized libraries, few of
which register as public libraries.
There are 55,755 registered public libr
aries in the country, but only 4,868 are considered active. Prior to
this study, very little was known about them. The objectives of the project were to sample active public
libraries in order to: ..."

"The Myanmar Library Survey is the first in- depth nationwide study of the country’s public libraries. Commissioned by The Asia Foundation in partnership with the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation (MBAPF), the survey aimed to establish a comprehensive, current picture of the Myanmar public library system to help inform the development of Myanmar’s information architecture and community initiatives. While much can be done to improve infrastructure and better support their role as information hubs, the survey reveals that citizens perceive libraries as having a significant and positive impact on community life. The survey findings will be circulated amongst key stakeholders, including governmental officials, policy makers, local and international non-governmental organizations, civil society, and local communities. A country coming out of decades of isolation, Myanmar is now rapidly building the information infrastructure needed for its citizens to participate in the reform process and compete in the global marketplace. Myanmar’s reverence toward libraries and its vast library network has the potential to aid this process. This study focuses on public libraries – defined in Myanmar as libraries registered with the government – because of their accessibility to a wider number of people and potential for scalability. In addition to public libraries, Myanmar has university, monastic, private, and specialized libraries, few of which register as public libraries. There are 55,755 registered public libr aries in the country, but only 4,868 are considered active. Prior to this study, very little was known about them. The objectives of the project were to sample active public libraries in order to: ..."

"The Myanmar Library Survey is the first in- depth nationwide study of the country’s public libraries. Commissioned by The Asia Foundation in partnership with the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation (MBAPF), the survey aimed to establish a comprehensive, current picture of the Myanmar public library system to help inform the development of Myanmar’s information architecture and community initiatives. While much can be done to improve infrastructure and better support their role as information hubs, the survey reveals that citizens perceive libraries as having a significant and positive impact on community life. The survey findings will be circulated amongst key stakeholders, including governmental officials, policy makers, local and international non-governmental organizations, civil society, and local communities. A country coming out of decades of isolation, Myanmar is now rapidly building the information infrastructure needed for its citizens to participate in the reform process and compete in the global marketplace. Myanmar’s reverence toward libraries and its vast library network has the potential to aid this process. This study focuses on public libraries – defined in Myanmar as libraries registered with the government – because of their accessibility to a wider number of people and potential for scalability. In addition to public libraries, Myanmar has university, monastic, private, and specialized libraries, few of which register as public libraries. There are 55,755 registered public libr aries in the country, but only 4,868 are considered active. Prior to this study, very little was known about them. The objectives of the project were to sample active public libraries in order to: ..."

"Bangladeshi mobile phones flood into Burma’s Arakan State...
Burmese junta-backed businessmen strike cross-border deals, and human rights workers can speak directly to witnesses at the scene—Bangladeshi mobile phones are slowly opening up northern Arakan State. Even the much-abused Burmese Muslims of Maungdaw Township are said to be developing a taste for mobile technology. The slow trickle of handsets that first began traveling east over the Bangladesh-Burma border at Teknaf and other crossings 18 months ago has now reportedly turned into a flood. Just don’t tell the local authorities you’ve got one..."